Eala in 7th heaven

MANILA, Philippines — A heart of gold, a nerve of steel.

Banged-up and up against a fellow giant-slayer – Alex Eala dug deeper with a boost from an electric Filipino crowd and ended up in seventh heaven.

The 21-year-old Filipina notched her seventh straight win from her Washington, D.C. title run, hacking out another nail-biter, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, over American Caty McNally to march into the Round of 16 of the WTA 1000 National Bank Open in Toronto.

Eala wasted a match point in a second-set meltdown after appearing bothered by a minor foot issue, but found enough in the tank to outlast McNally in two hours and 39 minutes at Sobeys Stadium.

She closed it out with a near love game on serve after McNally threatened to force a tiebreak, sealing one of the longest active win streaks on the WTA Tour.

More importantly, the result sets up a first-time meeting with World No. 14 and No. 12 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland for a spot in the quarterfinals on Monday. Bencic advanced with a grinder of her own, 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4, over No. 110 Taylor Townsend of the US.

“I think I survived,” said Eala, visibly limping at times since the second set.

McNally, World No. 70, came in on a high after stunning Wimbledon champion and World No. 7 Linda Noskova of Czechia, and gave Eala all she could handle – save for costly errors on returns late in the decider.

“I want to thank Caty for a great match and for being a great sport. It’s one of those matches that could have gone either way. It really came down to details and a little bit of luck,” Eala said.

It is Eala’s third straight Round of 16 appearance after her Wimbledon run and D.C. title, and she needed every bit of resolve to get there – her seventh match in a week.

After a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over No. 71 Alycia Parks, Eala looked sharp early against McNally, closing the first set with a 4-0 surge – including two breaks – after trailing 2-3.

Up 3-2 in the second, she called for a medical timeout after a slight tweak. Fatigue also looked to be a factor after playing doubles the previous day with American legend Venus Williams in a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova and Japan’s Miyu Kato.

Eala still broke to earn a match point at 5-4, but was blanked the rest of the set.

As she did against Parks, however, she was ice-cold in the clutch – racing to 3-1 in the third and holding firm after McNally closed to 4-5. The two were virtually even on serve and return, but Eala got the break she needed when McNally missed long on return in the ninth game.

For Eala, the crowd was the difference.

“The motivation to come here and play another match becomes so much more emotional. Someone in the crowd said they wanted to be Filipino for tonight, so for the Filipino community to have that impact on other people is everything,” she said.